Trivia

The services were one of the busier to take this design, and as a result the fast food offer was placed in the very middle of the building, rather than interrupting the small restaurant area. A 2011 extension saw it gain an M&S Simply Food, and lose the large restaurant windows.

Junction Changes

Until 2007 Blyth was situated on the A1 southbound, but thanks to a roundabout with the A614 being just north of it and a loop road linking the services to the A614, they were accessible to traffic on both sides of the carriageway. Roadworks have since replaced the roundabout with a 'proper' motorway junction. The loop road's connection to the A1 has been closed (later an overflow car park) and the old exit has become two-way.

Although new road signs were erected to provide the new directions to the services from the A1(M), as of 2014 many of the old signs still haven't been removed, offering a lot of signage and wildly inaccurate distances to the exit required.

Hilltop Cafe

Opposite the services is the site of the old Hilltop roadside café which closed in the 1980s, around the time that the services opened (it's not clear which happened first). It was ran by Blue Star - probably not the same as the forecourt operator - and had direct access from the A1 northbound. The owner had requested a gap in the barrier so southbound traffic could access it.